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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2018

Willie Taggart

Greensboro, North Carolina

WILLIE TAGGART: Yes, big-time week for us, ACC game, in our division, in a hostile environment on the road, and our guys understand what it's going to take in that environment against a good Syracuse football team. Got to bring our "A" game.

Q. To look at the play of Eric Dungey and just the threat that he can be on the ground as well as through the air, what you can say about what you've seen from him on film and your takeaways.
WILLIE TAGGART: Oh, he's a phenomenal athlete, great competitor, and he causes you problems. In the run game, he makes you have to defend 11 guys instead of 10, and then he can throw the ball, as well, to some of these skilled receivers out there. It's a big-time challenge for our guys because he brings a little more to it than just throwing the football. There's his running ability, and he does that really well.

Q. When you see the ball getting spread out as it has at Syracuse with so many different receivers, what you can say you've taken away on film from their offensive scheme and the fact that they do not have truly that No. 1 guy but a bunch of different guys that are doing it so far this season?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, it means as a defense you've definitely got to stay focused, but you never know where the ball is going to go. It could go to any one of those guys where most offenses have a guy that they target the most, and in their offense they can get it to anybody. You've got to be sound in what you're doing, disciplined, and you never know when that ball is going to come your way because it's going to come, you just don't know when.

Q. With the NCAA rule change regarding the fair catch on kickoffs, what is your thought on that rule, and how have you seen it used or not used to this point in the year?
WILLIE TAGGART: I'll tell you what, I actually saw it last week in our game against Sanford. They fair caught a couple times. But the first game, it really didn't affect us any, and even in this game it didn't. Some teams are going to use it and prefer to start on the 25, and some teams are going to do what they normally do. There hasn't been much difference, to be honest with you, from what I've seen.

Q. And when you prepare for a team that has an explosive kick returner, do you think much about the message it would send to not kick to that guy, the message to your team? Is it hard to kind of check the ego of, hey, we're good, we can stop this guy?
WILLIE TAGGART: No, I think you've got to be honest and real with yourself and look at the reality of what the situation is. I think we all want to feel like we're that guy and all and want to stop him, but got to be smart about what you're doing. Preferably I would like for our kicker to kick it out of the back of the end zone every time.

Q. You mentioned Syracuse's passing game. What kind of improvement or where do you want to see the improvement in your pass defense this week coming off last week?
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, I'd like for our guys not to be as passive as we were early in the game and being better technique wise on the deep ball. I thought from a technical standpoint we wasn't good at all, and we've got to be better. We worked on it quite a bit this week, and I look forward to our guys going out and improving.

Q. Speaking of improving, obviously what are you hoping for with your offensive line? Obviously you've got injuries there, but do you see potential to have the O-line improved to enable your run game to improve?
WILLIE TAGGART: I do. You see it each and every week, and you get new guys in there, and that's always a challenge. But I see it. I think our guys worked hard this week on the things that we were doing wrong. Everything we were doing is all correctable. It's not like we're physically just getting beat, it's just technically we're not doing it the right way or there's a missed assignment here or there. We've just got to be consistent up front and sound in what we're doing and playing, like I say, with very good technique, and I think things will be okay.

Q. Willie, Dino Babers just said that he feels like you guys are ready to explode on somebody, and he hopes that it's not them. I'm just curious if you've got a sense from either practice this week or what you've seen the first couple weeks that it's coming for you guys, that you guys are going to have an opportunity to hit your stride here in the next couple weeks.
WILLIE TAGGART: Well, I think when you watch the film, you can see, again, it's not like we're physically getting beat. It's things that we're doing wrong that we have to correct. We are close. We show signs of what we can be on the offensive side of the ball. We just haven't done it consistently enough, and a lot of that has to do with rotating so many guys in there, new guys, young guys in a new offense. The more we can stabilize how many guys are in there and let those guys play ball, the better we'll be. I see an improvement this week. It's all technical more than anything, and like I say, everything that's a problem with our O-line and in our offense is all correctable. That's why we're not panicking, and we're looking ourselves in mirror and saying, hey, these are things that we can control and we can make better, so no need to panic, just a need to have a sense of urgency to get better quick, and our guys understand that, and I think we'll see more improvement from our offensive line this week.

Q. When you say it's all technical, is that just in the way that they're lining up or they're shifting or their footwork is or their hand placement?
WILLIE TAGGART: It's more the footwork and hand placement. We were really sloppy in the last game, and it was just unsound, stuff we didn't do; day one stuff we wasn't doing well. And it just killed the play before we'd even get started. Just getting back to the basics and fundamentals of what we do, day one things, I think will make a tremendous improvement for our guys.

Q. Talk about the fourth quarter. Do you see any -- the comeback by the kids in the fourth quarter, do you feel like you're happy about what they did in the fourth quarter, because I know you were down by 10 at the half and all that stuff and struggling against an FCS opponent?
WILLIE TAGGART: Yeah, we were not happy with the way we were playing throughout the game. Again, when you're in games like that, you can easily panic and just give up, and I was really impressed with our guys that they didn't give up. There was so much encouragement going on on the sideline and guys believing that we're going to come back and win this game. I think a lot of it had to do with them knowing that we made a lot of mistakes on ourselves, and we just corrected them and things worked out. But to see our guys fight back and make plays for their teammates and find a way to win that ballgame to me says a lot about our team and their maturity when it comes to dealing with adversity. That's something we struggled with last year and here starting early in the season. For our guys to put themselves in an adverse situation like we did this past Saturday and find a way to get out of it says a lot, and like I said, our team is growing from that standpoint. We've got to start fast and not put ourselves in those situations.

Q. How was the excitement getting your first touchdown of the season in the late second quarter?
WILLIE TAGGART: It was fun. It was fun for the guys to see the excitement and seeing, hey, we know we can do this, we've just got to do it more often. It goes back to just being technically sound and not hurting yourselves with penalties or bad fundamentals.

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